Through the Bible for Skeptics and Seekers

Jesus teaches the crowds, heals the sick, and calls the disciples to follow Him. Fishermen, tax collectors, and their friends acknowledge they need forgiveness and healing. The religious leaders don’t feel they need anything. They had it all figured out. As as result, God cannot help them. #NewTestament #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #recons...

Jesus confronts evil in the wilderness. Satan is not a a Halloween costume but a fallen angel trying to destroy God’s good gifts in our lives. We can overcome temptation’s lies with the truth of God’s Word and following the Spirit of God within us. The arrogant cannot see God, the humble experience God. #NewTestament #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchrist...

John the Baptist calls the people of Israel to return to God, and there’s signs of spiritual awakening. Jesus is baptized and the voice of God the Father affirms Him and the Spirit of God appears in the form of a dove. One God in three persons. Luke ends the chapter with the genealogy of Jesus via Mary’s family tree. #NewTestament #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #decons...

Jesus is born in Bethlehem. A host of angels announce to shepherds that the Messiah would bring peace on earth. When being dedicated at the Temple, Simeon and Anna approach the baby Jesus and affirm his special role as the one who will bring salvation to all nations. Throughout it all, Mary treasured all she saw in he heart. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstruct...

An angel appears to Zechariah and Mary and their responses are quite different. The Messiah was coming! Miraculously born of a virgin, this baby would grow up to overthrow rulers and reign over a kingdom that would never end! #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #reconstructingfaith #postchristianworld #postchristi...

In Luke’s Gospel an angel told Mary that her son “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” - Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭32‬-‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬ Luke more than likely interviewed Mary as his gospel includes more of her story including her beautiful song about the goo...

An angel tells the women who came to the tomb: “Jesus has risen! He is not here.” The earliest manuscripts end with a cliffhanger. Those who saw the empty tomb refused to tell anyone because they were afraid. In this final section, we see the disciples struggled to believe, that Jesus appeared before them for many days, that He commissioned His disciples to go into all the world - which all of the...

On the cross Jesus at 3pm in the afternoon, Jesus says: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was not complaining about God, the Father, He was quoting a Messianic Psalm which foretold what the Suffering Servant would experience. Those around him would have known the rest of the words of that Psalm and understood what Jesus was saying. He was fulfilling what was prophesied about the Suffe...

Jesus willingly accepted the suffering before Him as He was willing to give His life for the sake of humanity. To the contrast, the disciples could not even stay awake to pray! In fact, as Jesus willingly followed God’s will in spite of all that it required of Him, afte the arrest all of the disciples deserted him and fled.  #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #de...

The Temple was destroyed but now we are His Temple when we choose to follow Jesus. This passage reminds us we shouldn't worry about when Jesus will return and make all things right. We just need to serve faithfully and urgently knowing it could come at any time. And when it does, all those who follow Jesus will come to Him and join Him on His journey to reign on earth once and for all!  #NewTe...

The crowds loved listening to Jesus. The religious leaders did not especially when Jesus called them out for their arrogance and their need for attention. Jesus explains that He is the cornerstone for those who believe, and a stumbling block to those who don't. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #rec...

Prayer is relational. It’s not just telling God what to do about our past, present, and future. It’s about allowing our relationship with Him to positively affect all of our relationships. Prayer is our way to talk to and listen to God. At times He may say “yes” or other times “wait” or other times “I was going to give this to you later but because you asked, you can have it now” and sometimes he...

In my experience, when I surrender everything to God including my sin, my shame, my worst moments, my best moments, all that I love, my hopes, and my dreams He keeps what is not good for me and gives me back only what’s best for me. When I surrender all to Him, I have a new and better perspective that every good thing I have is actually a gift from God! It all belongs to Him! #NewTestament #NewTes...

Jesus predicts that some would see the Kingdom of God come in it’s full power. Those who experienced this fulfilled were Peter, James, and John who were at the transfiguration. They saw Jesus as He is in the heavenly realm. Whether you are a follower of Jesus or a skeptic, you can ask God for the gift of faith. Ask him to help you believe. Jesus reframes greatness.  Jesus goes on to explain no one...

Sometimes as we read the New Testament, it’s easy to judge the disciples as clueless, but how often do we find ourselves frustrated or fretting over something we know with God’s help we can handle because He’s helped us with it in the past?! The reason they didn’t have the faith to see Jesus was going to feed the 4000 and didn’t understand his teachings and didn’t like what he predicted for the fu...

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were acting like their traditions were from God. Jesus corrects that to say a person cannot get clean from religious rituals that look good on the outside, but actually purity and righteous actions come from the heart.  The good news is that the same Jesus who went on to heal the Syrophonecian woman’s daughter and the man who was deaf and mute can also heal our...

Back in his hometown, Jesus was rejected because they knew him as a carpenter and knew his family. The disciples were more frustrated after Jesus fed thousands of people than they were excited. We can miss the miraculous or even miss the joy of a miracle when we take for granted what we have. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #dec...

A legion of demons talking…? A woman unable to be healed from doctors healed by Jesus…? A dead girl brought back to life…? We can never be sure when, or why or who might be healed, but it can still happen.  #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #reconstructingfaith #postchristianworld #postchristian  This e...

Jesus shares how each person is like a type of soil. Some are hard hearted. Some are very open as long as everything goes the way they want. Some are distracted by worries and wealth. Some are fruitful - transformed by God and helping others transform. Jesus also talks about the type of faith that is like a lamp on its stand, the growing seed, and the mustard seed. Even still, the disciples had mo...

Jesus appoints 12 to be his disciples even as He experiences opposition from the religious leaders and rejection from his family.  Some people are amazed that Hhe healed a man’s shriveled hand during the Sabbath. Others arewere enraged. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #reconstructingfaith #postchristi...

Jesus is becoming more and more popular as He heals a paralyzed man brought to Him Jesus through the roof! Jesus is doing something new which doesn’t fit into their current understanding of who God is.  He’s even recruiting tax collectors and spending time with his friends. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristia...

The Gospel of Mark is based on the firsthand account of Peter, one of the eyewitnesses. It’s very important to Mark that followers of Jesus tell others about Jesus, so you will notice how often he mentions what people are saying about him. #NewTestament #NewTestament1Year #NewYear #Jesus #faith #spirituality #deconstructing #reconstructing #deconstructingchristianity #reconstructingfaith #postchri...

Most scholars believe the Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark was the same one mentioned in the book of Acts who traveled with Paul and Barnabas and then bailed on them creating a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, who was Mark’s cousin. Mark went from not completing a journey to coming to visit Paul later on in his ministry and became known as Mark the Evangelist. According to the early church...

In Matthew 28 an angel appears to a couple of the women and tells them to share with the others that Jesus rose from the dead! They are the world’s first witnesses of the greatest miracle of all time! Rumors circulated that the disciples had stolen the body, but the disciples traveled far and wide to “make disciples of all nations” and most were killed unwilling to deny they had seen Jesus alive....

In Matthew 27, we come to one of the darkest days on planet earth - the day Jesus died. The day the religious leaders and the Roman government crucified God. So who is to blame for this diabolical moment? Was it Judas? Was it the Jewish leaders and the mob there that day? Was it Pilate and the Romans? Jesus willingly gave His life for you and for me. He came to rescue humanity as the ultimate sacr...